Tags

URS FISCHER :: BONJOUR MADAME FISSCHER!

Visit Palazzo Grassi in these days is a bit like being catapulted into a parallel world, into a path populated by riddles and illusions, plastered with signs and objects whose nature seems to evade all logics. The author of this amazing journey is the artist Urs Fischer (born in Zurich in 1973 and currently based in New York), that at the Madame Fisscher’s opening, in the first floor’s foyer and halls of the prestigious exhibition venue chaired by François Pinault, has presented much of his creative assets: over thirty works created during two decades.

Volcanic, in that way the ratio of Fischer with art could be defined: nothing is obvious or preconceived, everything is subject to multiple interpretations. Unsettling, happily incongruent and allergic to any form of physical or mental static, the Swiss artist is the first actor of the new series of monographic exhibitions held by Palazzo Grassi. A debut, with this masterly exposition, which results successful and praiseworthy. «Urs Fischer is an artist with an immense potential and has proved it perfectly with this show», commented Martin Bethenod, director of Palazzo Grassi. «He enthusiastically accepted our invitation, actively participating in the planning of the installation, the conception of initiatives (such as workshops with students of the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice), and the choice of works together with the curator Caroline Bourgeois».

The discovery tour of the stunning visual universe of Fischer begins by the imposing installation Madame Fisscher, perfect reproduction of the artist’s London studio, where you get lost in a whirlwind of sketches, drawings, furnitures, trashes, memorabilia and colours. A prelude that well represents the magma of ideas and set of techniques and materials which highlight the artist’s works. After meander through the “belly” of Madame Fisscher, the exhibition unfolds in dialogue and improbabile dream (Cappillon; In Dubio Pro Reo; Mr Watson – come here – I want to see you; Clouds; The Lock), surreal perceptual reversals (abC; meme; A Thing Called Gearbox), fragments and human orifices (Untitled [Holes]; The Grass Munchers; Old Pain), meaningless movements and objects out of context (NachJugendstiel kam Roccoko; A Sigh Light is the Sound of My Life), comparisons between life and art (Necrophonia).

Attractive, and to dissect, is the choice of films screened during the exhibition and selected by the artist, in which even peeps our Pupi Avati with his moovie The House with Laughing Windows. «What I admire most of Urs Fischer is his ability to give life to a “hyper accurate chaos“, that sense of permanent movement that characterizes all his work. I think he is a genius from the space, for his special way of calling into question its identity and change it, creating a dynamic dialogue between the works and the context in which they are located» said Bethenod. In fact, the association between the playful spirit, ambiguous and paradoxical work of Fischer, and the noble neo-classical architecture of the Palazzo Grassi destabilizes and surprises, catching unprepared the viewer and goading his imagination. So, for those who missed Marguerite de Ponty, the amazing exhibition held between 2009 and 2010 at the New Museum in New York, or for who was enchanted by Jet Set Lady, presented in Milan in 2005 by the Nicola Trussardi Foundation, we strongly recommended to visit the ”dear” Madame Fisscher!
Equally unmissable is also the public meeting scheduled for June 20 at Palazzo Grassi, which will see Urs Fischer in conversation with the curator Francesco Bonami.